1

The collaborative approach between the Federal Statistical

Office and the Federal Office of Topography for

maintaining a geocoded building and dwelling register used

as a base for the production of geostatistical data

Romain Douard and Rainer Humbel1

1 Federal Statistical Office, 2010 Neuchâtel, Switzerland,

romain.douard@bfs.admin.ch, rainer.humbel@bfs.admin.ch

Abstract. The population census of 1990 was the first fully geocoded census in Switzerland.

Since 2000, the geocoding process has been regularly improved and allows the geocoding of

many statistics. During the last years, an ever closer cooperation was established between the

Federal Statistical Office (FSO) and the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo), fostered

by the federal law of geoinformation which provides optimal legal conditions. This coopera-

tion is an important basis for a reliable and sustainable implementation of our national stati-

stical geospatial framework.

The approach is mainly based on a standardized update of the register of buildings and

dwellings (RBD) in a close collaboration with the land surveyors. The local construction

authorities notify the RBD of all building projects, using a standardized data exchange pro-

cedure. New buildings are announced with basic location data, such as address, approximate

coordinates and land plot number as well as descriptive data such as number of floors, type

of heating, number of dwellings, rooms, etc. During the registration process, the system pro-

vides a unique identification number to each building, each address and each dwelling. After

that, these the building information number is communicated to the local surveyors. After

completion of the cadastral survey process, its results are communicated to swisstopo, using

a standardized interface. Finally, by accessing cadastral data the FSO can retrieve all neces-

sary information for updating and validating the RBD data. It is then possible to publish an

official list of addresses, including building and address identification number as a part of the

national geodata infrastructure, on a free access basis. These identification number will be

integrated in administrative and statistical datasets. Every dataset containing a building iden-

tification number can be geocoded easily during the statistic production process.

Keywords. Register of buildings and dwellings, geocoded address, statistic, cadastral survey

1 Introduction

The first georeferencing of population census began in 1970 as a research program at

the Institute for Local, Regional and National Planning at the ETH Zürich. The pro-

duction of geo-referenced statistics independent of the traditionally used administra-

tive boundaries was decided in order to create a database for regional planning pur-

poses. The population censuses from 1970 and 1980 were geocoded with the help of

the local administrative authorities on a voluntary basis (Hase, 1970). As a result, the

2

georeferenced data from this two censuses cover only some regions of the country. In

1987, the federal government decided to start a national project for the georeferen-

cing of the population census 1990.

In 1992, the parliament accepted the federal statistics law. According to this law, it

was decided to regularly collect geocoded information on persons, households, buil-

dings and enterprises. In order to avoid to collect every ten years all the informations

on buildings by distributing questionnaires to every building owner and to all the

property management agencies, it was decided in 1998 by the parliament to create a

register of buildings and dwellings. The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) proceeded

to create such a register of buildings and dwellings (RBD), based on the data col-

lected during the census of 2000. It was also decided to allocate a federal building

identification number (EGID) and to record coordinates for all buildings. This was

done using cadastral data, and for those buildings which couldn’t be located by the

FSO, with the help of local authorities who identified them on paper maps. In order

to keep the information up to date, a Web application was designed and launched,

requiring the municipal construction authorities to report all buildings and/or dwel-

lings which are built, converted or demolished. This Web application was also

designed to collect the data for construction statistics, in order to discharge the local

authorities from redundant statistical surveys. During the next decade, the FSO pre-

pared the basis for the first register-based census, which took place in 2010.

In order to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the RBD’s coordinates, a collabora-

tion was established early with the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo) which

is in charge of the supervision of cadastral surveying. The registration in the cadast-

ral data of the EGID for each building registered in the RBD was the first accom-

plishment of this collaboration. This could be intensified in the last years, and a

revised federal regulation for the RBD has been adopted on the 1. July 2017, provi-

ding a legal basis to this collaboration.

2 The register of building and dwelling (RBD)

2.1 Legal underpinnings

According to the Swiss Constitution, federal authorities may issue regulations with

regard to the harmonization and management of official registers with a view to

minimizing the work needed for obtaining statistical information.

The Federal Statistics Act of 1992 fix the principle of the maintenance of the RBD

by the FSO:

“The Federal Office cooperates closely with the cantons in the maintenance of a

Federal Register of Buildings and Dwellings (RBD). Access to the Register for stati-

stical, research and planning purposes and to fulfil statutory obligations is open to

3

the Confederation, and to each canton and commune in respect of the data per-

taining to its territory. The Federal Council shall regulate the management of the

Register and decree more detailed provisions on data protection. Insofar as no

personal data is involved, the Federal Council may make the data in the register

accessible to the public.”

2.2 Content of the RBD

The RBD contains all construction projects, all buildings with residential use in Swit-

zerland, their address and their dwellings. Buildings without residential use may be

registered on a voluntary basis. Based on the recently enforced legislation, this will

become mandatory until 2020.

Every construction project, building, building address and dwelling is associated

with a unique identification number. Further stable basic data, such as the age, the

dimension, the energy supply, etc. provide an up-to-date view of the building and

dwelling stock of Switzerland. Data on residents, property status, the level of rents

and similar are, however, not contained in the RBD.

2.3 Organisation and update of the RBD

The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) manages the RBD in close collaboration with

the specialised services of the Confederation, cantons and communes.

2.3.1 Role of the confederation

The FSO publishes the catalogue of attributes, which provides an overview of the

structure, the definitions and the contents of the register. Entities and nomenclatures

used in the Register as well as the individual attributes, including quality require-

ments, are explained in the catalogue. Any change to this document may only be

made after consultation with the partners and the cantons.

The FSO may also publish recommendations and guidelines regarding the RBD.

The FSO is in charge of maintaining the database and the application for collecting,

managing and distributing data. Another task of the FSO is to monitor the continuous

updating of the register and, in collaboration with the canton, to send reminder to the

communes.

The management of the RBD may be delegated to cantonal authorities. Six cantons

maintain their own registers and communicate at least monthly the changes to the

FSO, using automated procedures.

2.3.2 Role of the cantons

The cantons may access the data of the RBD and use them for administrative,

research and planning purposes. The cantons are consulted for all major change in

the management of RBD. Cantons who maintain their own register must also plan,

finance and manage the necessary infrastructure.

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A so called “coordination service” is designated by each canton to serve as direct

partner to the FSO and to act as a contact point between the confederation and the

communes.

2.3.3 Role of the communes

The construction services of the communes must report every construction project

requiring a building permit to the FSO (new constructions, transformations, demoli-

tions) via the internet and a defined interface or via web services. The data survey

takes place in coordination with the FSO’s construction statistics, and can be done

continuously, but at least once every three months. This survey at the communal

level is supervised by the coordination service of the canton.

3 The Cadastral Surveying

3.1 Legal underpinnings

The Federal Land Registry was established in 1912 with the introduction of the

Swiss Civil Code. Cadastral surveying, an integral part of land registration, became a

federal responsibility.

The National Land Survey is the responsibility of the confederation, according to the

Article 75a in the federal constitution. The confederation shall issue regulations on

official surveying and may issue regulations on the harmonization of official infor-

mation relating to the land.

On the basis of this Article, the parliament passed the Federal Act on Geographic

Information (GeoIG) in 2007. This act is the fundament for collecting, managing,

archiving and distribute geodata. Article 10 defines the principle of dissemination of

the geodata: “Official geodata under federal legislation shall be accessible to the

public and may be used by anyone, unless this is contrary to overriding public or

private interests.” Therefore, geodata are generally accessible to a wide audience and

some basic data are published under OGD license.

The Act also explicitly obliges authorities to grant each other direct access to official

geodata.

3.2 Organization

As described in the publication of the Federal Office of Topography (swisstopo)

(Cadastral surveying in Switzerland, 2008), the cadastral surveying in Switzerland is

an example for public private partnership and for close cooperation between all

administrative levels (confederation, cantons and communes). The duties and task of

each organization are described below.

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3.2.1 Confederation

The Geodesy and Federal Directorate of Cadastral Surveying, a division of swiss-

topo, is responsible for the strategic leadership in cadastral surveying.

This government agency defines, in consultation with the cantons, the national stra-

tegy for the implementation, renewal and further development of cadastral surveying

and defines the quality requirements. The Federal Directorate of Cadastral Surveying

checks the accuracy of the work delivered by the cantons and decides on the distribu-

tion of funding. The annual federal budget dedicated to cadastral surveying thus pro-

vides a major contribution to the legal safeguard of land ownership.

3.2.2 Cantons

The cantons are responsible for the operational management of cadastral surveying.

They define the cantonal implementation programme, plan and direct the activities

and lay down specific cantonal standards. They check the cadastral surveying carried

out by contracted private land surveyors and approve the work after correcting defi-

ciencies. With this approval the cadastral surveys become official public documents.

Cantonal cadastral surveying agencies exist in 20 cantons while six cantons have

turned over their operational management responsibilities back to the Geodesy and

Federal Directorate of Cadastral Surveying itself.

3.2.3 Municipalities

Some of the larger cities have their own land surveying offices, which are respon-

sible for cadastral surveying within their area of local authority.

3.2.4 Licensed land surveyors

Since the data from cadastral surveying is legally binding, only licensed land survey-

ors may carry out the surveys. There are some 190 private sector surveying offices

across Switzerland, with around 2800 staff involved in the measurement, updating

and management of cadastral surveying data. Each of them is supervised by a

licensed surveyor.

3.3 Structure of the data

Cadastral data are available in a standardized format (INTERLIS). The data model is

defined at Federal level and is structured in 11 thematic layers. Buildings are

recorded in the land cover layer while land parcels are recorded in a dedicated layer.

Another layer is dedicated to the building addresses and is used to record information

on road names, house numbers, postal codes and locality names.

3.4 Updating of the data

All changes to ownership and changes to land cover due to human activities like con-

struction of roads and buildings must be notified to the authority in charge of the

6

cadastral surveying. After the measurement is achieved by the land surveyor – this

must be done within 6 months after notification, the data are updated.

In order to detect changes that happened without direct human intervention, some

periodic updates are carried out in regular interval under the supervision of the canto-

nal cadastral surveying agencies.

4 eGovernment and standardization in Switzerland

4.1 The eGoverment strategy

In order to promote e-government in Switzerland, the Federal Council adopted in

2007 the first eGovernment strategy (eGovernment Switzerland, eGovernment

Switzerland: Strategic plan for 2017 to 2019, 2017). Its implementation is pursued

together by the confederation, the cantons and the communes with four strategic aims

(eGovernment Switzerland, eGovernment Strategy Switzerland, 2017)

1. Service orientation: electronic government services are easy to use, transpa-

rent and secure.

2. Usefulness and effectiveness: eGovernment creates an added value for the

general public, businesses and the authorities, and reduces the work of all

those involved in processing official business.

3. Innovation and promotion of the Swiss economy: eGovernment exploits inno-

vations and thereby promotes Switzerland as a business location and as a

place to live.

4. Sustainability: multiple usage of solutions will be promoted. The confedera-

tion and the cantons ensure the sustainability of e-government services by

setting requirements in terms of organisation, financing and operation.

4.2 eCH Association

The eCH Association is one of the main organisations involved in the eGovernement

strategy. The association is a public-private platform, whose objective is to facilitate

cooperation through electronic transactions between government organizations and

business units and citizens. The eCH association assumes the responsibility for the

definition and development of standards. The association relies on expert groups

working on a non-profit basis, composed from members from both the public and the

private sector.

4.3 eCH standards

Today, more than 100 standards are published. The approved standards and best

practices are publicly accessible and free of charge. The standards can be declared to

be binding by public authorities.

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One of the expert groups is dealing with standards regarding the exchange of data

related to real estate information’s. Experts from cadastral surveying, land registry,

statistics, insurance and IT work together for the design of standards for exchanging

data on real estate transactions, surveying, construction projects, buildings and buil-

ding addresses.

5 Collaborative process to maintain a geocoded register of building

and dwelling

The RBD maintained by the FSO records basic information on the structure for each

building. The addresses are also stored in the RBD. The cadastral surveying main-

tained by the cantons documents their geometry. Combining these information sour-

ces can provide the basis for an integrated building information system.

5.1 The basics

In order to let all involved people work together, it’s necessary to use a common

semantic, which was established on a stepwise mode during the last 20 years. Today,

the collaboration can benefit from many common foundations:

Common definitions’ on building, dwelling and addresses have been defined;

Unique identifiers have been introduced for every objects (parcels, construc-

tion projects, buildings, dwellings, addresses, streets);

The responsibilities of each of the actors are defined;

Common nomenclatures are in use;

Instruction for addressing buildings has been published;

Instruction for registering and managing information in a common way in

both systems have been published.

5.2 The main process

Every construction project (new construction, transformation, demolition) must be

approved by the construction authorities of the municipalities. The land owner (or the

architect) has to fill in a construction application. It can be a “traditional” paper form,

or in some cantons, the application can be fulfilled in a digital form.

At the time of issuing a permit, the construction authority must notify the local sur-

veyor as well as the RBD about the project, its buildings, dwellings and addresses.

That happens using the interactive application provided by the FSO, or using Web

services programmed according to eCH standards. Approximate coordinates will also

be indicated, using an interactive map service. During the registration process, each

object is assigned a unique identification number. The numbers, as well as other pub-

lic attributes are immediately available to all authorized users.

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The FSO manages also a Web service, which can be used by local surveyors to be

informed about projected buildings and about building identification numbers

At regular intervals, updated cadastral data are transmitted in a standardized form

from the local surveyor to the responsible cantonal authority, and finally compiled at

swisstopo. The FSO can retrieve the geometric information needed to update the

building and address coordinates in the RBD from that database.

As long as the buildings are planned or under construction, the coordinates have

provisional status. The completion of the construction works is notified by the com-

mune to the FSO. The surveyors can then carry out the survey work and update the

cadastral database. The RBD will afterwards be updated and the definitive informa-

tion on building and address are tagged with the status “approved”.

5.3 Dissemination of address data

Swisstopo, in charge of the management of the federal geoportal, can access the

RBD and extract address information which will be made available to the public, on

a free access basis. Published information includes for each building the address and

the building identification number, the building address, the coordinates of the add-

ress and the name and the official number of the commune. Addresses can also be

retrieved using web services (REST). A further development will also include the

possibility to retrieve street information using similar services.

Fig. 1 Maintenance of the geocoded register of building and dwelling

RBD

Construction authorities

of the commune

Owner or

architect

Send application form for a

construction project

Register the project and

building informations

Building identification

number (EGID) is

assigned to the new

building

Land surveyor

EGID of new building

is transmitted

Cadastral DB

(canton)

Cadastral DB

(confederation)

Cadastral data, including

EGID are transmitted

FSO Cadastral data are

made accessible

An address is assigned

to new building

Check serviceAccess the RBD to

check the addressesFederal geoportal Geocoded addresses

are published

Update the RBD with

coordinates and parcel number

Services and database managed by swisstopo

Register managed by FSO

Informations about new

building are transmitted

Survey informations

are controlled

New building is

registered with its EGID

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Published address information are binding for public authorities. The retrieval and

use of geocoded addresses is free of charge, in order to promote the use of official

and conform addresses by everybody for all activities requiring the identification

and/or the localisation of a building.

5.4 Quality management

5.4.1 The quality management of the cadastral surveying

In order to guarantee the quality of the data, surveying specialists are well educated

and can only work under the supervision of a licensed surveyor. The work done by

private contracters will always be checked by the cantonal survey authorities.

In order to simplify the quality management survey, swisstopo maintains a so called

“check service”, which allows an automatic control of survey data which has to be

submitted in a standardized form. The check service first verifies the form of the data

regarding the data model. In a next step, data geometry and attributes are checked.

More than 400 rules have been defined in order to check the topology, the accuracy,

the cardinality, the integrity of the keys, etc.

Only controlled data can be approved by the cadastral authorities and published.

Possible errors in published data will be communicated to the cadastral authorities,

who demand the necessary corrections.

5.4.2 The quality management of the RBD

The RBD is managed centrally at the FSO. Quality can be checked and monitored

centrally. Hundreds of quality rules are implemented in the Web application of the

RBD.

Errors and warnings are categorized in 4 classes. The first class groups all errors

affecting identification attributes, like identification numbers or buildings addresses.

The second category comprise errors affecting the attributes needed for the produc-

tion of short-term statistics. The third category includes errors affecting the attributes

needed for the production of structural statistics. Other errors or warnings are

grouped in the last category.

For users using the Web GUI form, errors are reported in real time. For users wor-

king with web services, error reports will be transmitted using a dedicated service.

For cantons maintaining their own register, a special interface allows the transmis-

sion of cantonal data to the FSO. After each data delivery, a receipt is returned to the

canton, accompanied by a quality report.

Municipalities must fix all errors affecting data of her territory at quarterly. Only

municipalities have write permission on the data of the RBD, except for coordinates

and parcel number, which are centrally updated by the FSO based on cadastral sur-

vey data.

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5.4.3 Quality management of the whole system

The collaboration between cadastral survey and RBD implies new rules in order to

ensure the quality of the whole system.

Write permission policies have been defined in order to avoid inopportune data

updating. Municipal construction authorities are in charge of registering and main-

taining business data on construction projects, building and dwellings. Surveying

authorities are in charge of cadastral data and therefore of building and address coor-

dinates.

Because coordinates are not exactly surveyed for projected objects, the municipal

construction authorities get write permission for coordinates, as long as they are mis-

sing in cadastral data. Once the surveying for new buildings and / or addresses is

completed, coordinates are updated in the RBD and write permission is disabled for

all users. From this moment, coordinates from the RBD can only be updated through

processes using surveying data. Parcel numbers registered in the RBD are updated in

a similar way.

Address information is handled as a special case. According to the law, municipal

authorities (or cantonal authorities in some cantons) have the authority for assigning

addresses and surveying authorities are in charge of managing address data.

A special process has therefore be designed for registering and updating addresses.

For new buildings, addresses are registered provisionally in the RBD by the munici-

pal construction authority. This will be sent to the surveyor, which will check address

data on a formal basis. If errors are detected (for example in the spelling of the

name), the surveyor will report the mistake to the municipality. The address becomes

the status “approved”, once it is definitely adopted from the authorities. If an address

must be corrected, the same process is adopted.

Another challenge is to keep both systems up to date. In order to avoid discrepancies

between survey and RBD data, the “check service” of the cadastral surveying as been

completed with new rules. Survey data sent to the “check service” are compared with

RBD data. Data are matched using the identification numbers, and the values from

the attributes shard by both system are compared. Errors or warnings are reported.

Correction will be made from the authority in charge of the attribute. Once the

update is completed, the data will be sent again to the check service for a last control.

On a quarterly basis, the FSO map recent cadastral survey data with the RBD. On

that basis, inconsistency are communicated to the Coordination services of the can-

tons, which are in charge to coordinate the correction of the data.

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6 Benefits of the geocoded RBD

6.1 Benefits for the society

Basic information on buildings and especially on addresses plays an even more

important rule in many activities: postal delivery, emergency services, delivery of

goods, tourism, delivery of services (water, telecomm), cartography, etc. It is an

important component of the infrastructure of a digital society. The development of

the technologies (GPS, smartphones) makes reliable and up-to-date addresses

unavoidable.

Other building and dwelling information are used in many administrative processes,

like the management of energy or water supply, tax collection, etc. This information

are also used for planning, research and statistics.

6.2 Benefits for the state

The existence of an official register of buildings, dwellings and addresses reduces the

amount of work for the administration. Data has to be updated only once and the risk

to develop uncoordinated solutions is minimized. It also avoid repetitive data match-

ing, data validation and data correction. Despite the fact that some administrative

units must renounce to the income from the sale of address data, the cost reduction

for all other administrative units makes the balance sheet positive (Jarchow-von

Büren, 2016)

6.3 Benefits for the private sector

Since geocoded will be available at an open data policy basis, the entire economy

will experience a reduced charge in matching and correcting addresses. Parcel and

goods delivery can be optimized and organized faster and cheaper. Costs can be

reduced thanks to more efficient routing. In the long term, the potential in all proces-

ses requiring georeferencing of objects like GIS analysis, geographic search, decision

making considering spatial patterns and developments, etc. is very important.

7 The geocoded RBD as a central infrastructure for the production

of geostatistical data

Since 2010, population and business censuses are register-based censuses. They use

administrative and statistical registers.

7.1 The population register

The FSO does not maintain a statistical population register, but instead uses informa-

tion from different population registers at the federal, cantonal and communal level.

12

In order to carry out a register-based survey, the cantonal and communal population

registers, which are kept according to different rules in each canton, are standardized

matching the harmonization guidelines published by the FSO according to the

Register Harmonization Act.

One of the task imposed to the municipalities by that Act is to add to the basic resi-

dents’ information both identification numbers of the building and of the dwelling in

which the person is living.

The FSO maintains the sedex (secure data exchange) platform which is set up to

allow designated authorities to send their residents' data safely and securely to the

FSO. Transferred data are compliant with the eCH-standard “Delivery from resident

data to the statistic”. A validation service helps the FSO to check the data delivered

and gives feedback to the residents’ registration offices on any improbabilities (war-

nings) and errors in the data they sent.

Validated data are saved in the SFO database and used as basis for the population

census.

7.2 The Business and Enterprise Register (BER)

The Federal Statistical Office maintains also a Business and Enterprise Register

(BER), which contains all businesses, enterprises and firms, including public sector

enterprises, that have their registered office in Switzerland. The computerised data-

base is updated continuously using information collected through surveys or already

existing in other administrative registers.

Addresses registered in the BER are continuously mapped to those of the RBD and

building identification number are added to each record from the BER. Most of the

addresses match automatically, but about 20% need human supervision. Due to bad

addresses about 1% of the enterprises can’t be mapped with the RBD. These percent-

ages should be reduced in the near future thanks to the increased use of standardized

addresses.

The BER is used for statistical purposes, research and planning, as well as to respond

to specific enquiries from the confederation.

7.3 The geocoding process of population and business statistical data

The FSO introduced in 2010 the new register-based population statistics and the buil-

ding and dwelling statistics. The register-based structural business statistics took

place for the first time in 2012.

For those statistics, the production process begin with the extraction of a snapshot of

register data. The day of reference is always the 31 of December.

During the statistical production process, the building identification number is kept

in all datasets. Once the data are consolidated, it is possible to proceed to the geocod-

ing of the statistical data.

13

Using the building identification number, coordinates are extracted from the RBD

and attributed to the individual data in each dataset.

For individual data with missing building identification number, the address of the

person or of the business is extracted. Using the address information, the record will

be approximatively geocoded, using a 3-step process.

The first step consists in a mapping between the street name of the record and the

street names registered within the RBD. If a matching is possible, and if at least one

address is already geocoded in the RBD, the coordinate corresponding to the closest

address to the median coordinate of all the addresses of the street is attributed to the

record.

For those records who can’t be geocoded during the first step, a mapping is made

between the ZIP code of the record and the ZIP codes from the RBD. A coordinate

corresponding to the coordinate of the closest address to the median coordinate of all

the addresses with the same ZIP code is attributed to the record.

During the last step, a coordinate corresponding to the centre of activity of the com-

mune is attributed to the last individual records without coordinates.

Fig. 2 Process chart of geocoding statistical data

7.4 Aggregation and dissemination

Geocoded individual data are finally aggregated on a 100m grid basis. In order to

guarantee the confidentiality of the data, attributes values between 1 and 3 are reco-

ded to 3. About 700 attributes from the censuses of population, of business and of

buildings and dwelling are published annually.

The most basic attributes (population count, number of working places and employed

persons) are published on the Swiss geoportal as a 100m grid and can be visualised

Building identification

number (EGID)

Coordinates

Social insurance

number (UID)

EGID

UID

EGID

…

IDE

EGID

…

EGID

Coordinates

…

Aggregated data

(Grid data set)

Individual data

(Point data set)

Inside FSO

Extr

axtio

no

f sn

ap

sh

ots

Snapshots for statistic

production

Tabular

data

Datasets from

other surveys

business identification

number (IDE)

EGIDStatistical

production system

Individual datasets

are enriched with

coordinates

Datasets are

related using EGID

IDE / EGID / UID

EGID

Primary key

Foreign key

Business and

enterprise register

Register of buildings

and dwellings

Population register

14

on a freely. The full datasets can be downloaded as CSV-formatted text files. The

most frequently used attributes can be downloaded free of charge, while more speci-

fic detailed information is only available for customers who purchase an annual geo-

data subscription.

8 Conclusions and outlook

This close collaboration between many organizations is the result of more than 10

years of work with a common goal. This is the result of many small successes. It

opens the door on new horizon. For statistics, it is today possible to geocode many

different datasets. The only crucial technical condition is to ensure that at least one

key of the dataset can be related to the federal RBD. A building, a person or a busi-

ness identification number can serve as a key allowing to efficiently enrich statistical

results with coordinates.

Geocoded datasets can enhance statistical analysis by the spatial, geographic compo-

nent. The FSO has already developed new products based on geocoded data, like a

matrix of commuter flows used in the delimitation of agglomerations. Another pro-

duct called “Services to the population” is published periodically. Here, the accessi-

bility of services such as food market, post office or drugstore are analysed based on

the travelling time required from each hectare grid cell to the next service of the

tested type. A new project is the development of a residential property price index,

which uses geocoded statistical data integrated into a hedonic model (Brand, Becker

Vermeulen, Fischbach, & Carpy, 2017) to estimate the influence of geographic loca-

tion influences such as neighbourhood, landscape, view, slope etc. on property

prices.

The potential use of high qualitative geocoded data is huge, but also requires close

cooperation between highly skilled workers from different organizations. It also

necessitates well designed processes and the use of a common language, calling

again for standardization and coordination.

References

Brand, M., Becker Vermeulen, C., Fischbach, D., & Carpy, Y. (2017). Swiss

residential property price index: the use of geolocalised information for

quality adjustment in location. 15th Meeting of the Ottawa Group:

International Working Group on Price Indices. Eltville: Ottawa Group.

Cadastral surveying in Switzerland. (2008). Wabern: Federal Directorate of

Cadastral Surveying. Retrieved from

https://www.swisstopo.admin.ch/en/services/direct-supervision.html

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